Ever wish you could pour a pint of Guinness like you grew up in Ireland? After all, pouring a perfect pint of Guinness, whether from draft or can, requires a little finesse. You can achieve it and pour beer like a pro by following some tips from Colm O’Connor, a Guinness Brewery Ambassador who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Guinness Storehouse with fun events throughout the year.
The first tip is for the draft beer from a tap. O’Connor explained, “It has to be in two parts due to the particular temperature, [and] the particular pressure as well. You want to get all of those bubbles out, 300 million of them.” First, start by pulling the tap down, keeping the nozzle close to the glass, but never directly in the beer. This helps minimize friction and air bubbles. “If you have too high of a fall, you’re creating more friction, and that’s basically going to manifest in a kind of, very holey kind of head,” O’Connor stated. Then, once the glass is about 70% full, straighten it and stop pouring when it reaches 80%-90%, allowing the bubbles to settle.
O’Connor continued, “Once you get that separation, you’ve got that white head, all you do for the second part [is] minimize the breakout of the bubbles. So what you do is you push [the tap] forward.” Then, once the white head is at the top of the glass, take your hand off the tap.
Pour draft Guinness from a tap in two parts, but let Guinness from a can flow uninterrupted
After taking your hand off the tap, O’Connor explained that the white top should “basically spring back into its normal position.” In 20 to 30 seconds, you’ll get that hallmark Guinness dome. O’Connor added that if your pour draft Guinness all in one go without separating it into two parts as he had advised, you will not get the iconic dome. He stated, “The head will be too high, it’ll just be too much of a gas breakout all at once.” Thus, a bit of patience and finesse are needed to pour a pint of Guinness like you grew up in Ireland.
But what about a can of Guinness? Within Guinness cans are balls called widgets. According to O’Connor, Guinness invented the widget. He said, “You can hear [the widget] rattle in the cans. It’s about the size of a ping pong ball. … That is there to agitate the beer at a very, very high pressure.” Thanks to the widget, it is fine for you to pour Guinness draft beer out of a can in one fell swoop versus a two part pour like you would do from a tap. Additionally, users on Reddit recommend pouring the beer into the glass with the can completely upside down. So, the next time you pour Guinness, remember O’Connor’s tips. After all, it’s always good to know everything about a beer before you pour it.
